Secrets From a Girl presents a collection of Maya Man’s generative, browser based work focusing on identity, femininity, and the internet.

The exhibition highlights social media’s role in encouraging the curation and cultivation of an aspirational self. Working primarily with custom software, Man comments on internet culture by algorithmically remixing and collaging it into her own websites as art objects. The pieces FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT and ???????????????? ???????? ???????????? ???????????????? both appropriate text fragments found on social media, directing viewers’ attention toward the circulation of language within online platforms. Other works insert the image of the artist herself, always augmented or manipulated by digital filters and tools.

Transforming the gallery into a space reminiscent of her old bedroom, Man employs DIY aesthetics to develop an aura of intimacy and vulnerability. The bedroom acts as a “backstage” to where reality is performed. There, one spends time alone: scrolling, consuming, praying that someone on their small screen can tell them how to “be themselves” the right way.

With Secrets From a Girl, Man holds up a mirror to both ourselves and our social media feeds, revealing the inextricable link between what we believe and what we consume.

UCLA DMA Graduate Gallery
Broad Art Center 1st Floor,
240 Charles E. Young Drive,
Angeles, CA 90095